Condado de Essex / Montclair / Accidentes de Auto

Montclair Car Accident Lawyer Condado de Essex, New Jersey

If you were hurt in Hackensack, James Vasquez fights to get you every dollar you are owed. He has represented Bergen County's injured since 2004, and he knows this county seat's I-80, Route 4 and Route 17 corridors, its historic Hackensack River bridges, and the streets around Main Street and Hackensack University Medical Center.

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Car Accidents in Hackensack

When the employer answers as well

$500 Million

Recovered for New Jersey Families

22 Yrs

Serving New Jersey

People assume that employer responsibility depends on a van with a logo. It does not. What matters is what the driver was doing and whose interests they were advancing when they did it.

New Jersey applies respondeat superior, under which an employer may be liable for an employee's negligence committed within the scope of employment. Two things have to be established. That an employment relationship existed, and that the conduct occurred within the scope of that employment. The reasoning behind it is that someone who takes the benefit of work performed by another answers for injuries caused in performing it. Ordinary commuting generally falls outside that, under what is called the going and coming rule. The exceptions matter more than the rule in practice. Where an employer derives a benefit from the journey, exercises some control over it, or requires the employee to have a vehicle available for work, courts have brought the conduct back within scope. In 2003 the Supreme Court held a firm liable where an employee used her personal car to advance the employer's business, applying the dual purpose and required vehicle exception. Attendance at a company function has also been treated as a special errand within scope. This matters practically because corporate defendants typically carry far higher limits than individual drivers. James Vasquez has handled New Jersey injury claims since 2004.

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Injuries we handle

Montclair car accident claims we take on

Work related driving runs through more of these than people expect.

yes Accident Facts

Where Montclair crashes happen

A busy township with commercial corridors, commuter volume and heavy foot traffic.

Valley Road and Watchung Avenue

Arterials carrying commuter volume past homes, schools and shops, with frequent turning conflicts.

Worth establishing: the purpose of the journey. A commute is generally outside scope while a work errand along the same road may not be.

Upper Montclair and the residential grid

Short sight lines with vehicles emerging between parked cars, and service vehicles working throughout the day.

Worth establishing: who the driver worked for, which is frequently not apparent from the vehicle and is recorded on the crash report.

Bloomfield Avenue

Retail and restaurant frontage with constant stopping, turning and deliveries throughout the day.

Worth establishing: whether the driver was working. Delivery and service vehicles concentrate here and the employer question changes the available coverage entirely.

The station approaches

Concentrated activity twice a day with vehicles dropping off, circling and pulling out among pedestrians.

Worth establishing: whether an employer required the vehicle to be available for work that day, which is one of the recognised exceptions.

In each of these the first question after fault is what the driver was doing at the time, and it is answerable.

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Scope Of Employment

Four things that decide whether the employer answers

The vehicle matters far less than the purpose of the journey.

The vehicle can be personal

New Jersey's leading decision involved an employee driving her own car. A logo on the door is not what creates employer responsibility.

Commuting is usually outside

Ordinary travel to and from work generally falls outside the scope of employment, under what courts call the going and coming rule.

The exceptions do the work

Where the employer benefits from the journey, exercises control over it, or requires a vehicle to be available for work, the conduct is brought back within scope.

Detour or frolic

A minor deviation such as stopping for coffee generally remains within scope. A substantial personal departure takes the employee outside it.

If the driver mentioned they were working, were on their way to a job, or were carrying tools or deliveries, note it. That detail can change which insurance responds. For how car accident claims work statewide, see the car accident practice area page.

Why It Matters

Two reasons to establish the employer early

It changes the available coverage and it adds a second route to responsibility.

Commercial limits are usually far higher

An individual driver may carry minimum or near minimum liability limits, which a serious injury exhausts quickly. A business carries commercial coverage that is frequently many times larger. Where an employer is properly brought into a claim, that difference decides what is actually recoverable rather than merely who is named. It is the single most consequential reason to establish the driver's purpose early rather than accepting the individual policy as the whole picture.

The employer may be liable for its own conduct too

Separately from responsibility for an employee's negligence, a business can be liable for its own decisions in putting a driver on the road. Where it entrusted a vehicle to someone it knew or should have known was unsafe, or set schedules that could not be met safely, that is a direct claim proved from the company's own records rather than from the driver's conduct alone.

Know Before You Call

Three rules about work related driving

Established New Jersey doctrine, applied to the facts of each journey.

Respondeat Superior

The employer answers for work done on its behalf

An employer may be liable for an employee's negligent acts where a master and servant relationship existed and the conduct occurred within the scope of employment. The principle is that a party taking the benefit of work performed by another answers for injuries caused in performing it.

Carter v. Reynolds, 175 N.J. 399 (2003)

A personal car can still bring the employer in

The New Jersey Supreme Court held a firm liable where an employee used her personal automobile to advance her employer's business interests, applying the dual purpose and required vehicle exception to the going and coming rule and placing the conduct within the scope of employment.

Detour And Frolic

The size of the departure matters

A minor deviation from work duties, such as stopping for food or fuel on a work route, generally remains within scope. A substantial personal departure takes the employee outside it, and where the line falls is a question of fact rather than of the employer's characterisation.

Personal Injury Protection, the verbal threshold and the two year filing deadline are covered on the car accident practice area page and the Montclair personal injury page.

What to note at the scene

Small details that decide whether an employer is in the claim.

Ask whether they were working

Drivers say so readily at the scene and less readily afterwards. Note the answer, the time and anything about where they were going.

Photograph the vehicle and its contents

Signage, tools, deliveries, equipment or branded clothing. All of it evidences a work purpose that may later be disputed.

Get the crash report

It records the registered owner and the insurance presented, which frequently identifies a business rather than an individual.

Raise it early if there is any indication

Employment records, dispatch information and scheduling are obtainable, and they are what settle a disputed scope argument.

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James Vasquez

Antes de que James Vasquez representara a su primera persona lesionada, se sentaba al otro lado de la mesa. Como exfiscal y abogado de defensa de aseguradoras, pasó años aprendiendo exactamente cómo se ganan y se pierden estos casos.

Ahora lo usa a su favor. Cuando los ajustadores y los abogados contrarios se enfrentan a James, se enfrentan a alguien que ha leído su manual, ha litigado en sus tribunales y sabe con precisión dónde se quiebran sus argumentos.

Con sede en Clifton y sirviendo a los condados de Passaic, Morris y Essex, su firma le brinda a cada cliente la atención personal de James, respaldada por un equipo que conoce su expediente a fondo.